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Sarah Palin's team pushes back against new book

Sources close to Palin disputed several of the anecdotes in 'Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin.' | AP Photos
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By ANDY BARR | 5/23/11 3:22 PM EDT
Updated: 5/24/11 7:03 AM EDT

The book won’t be out until Tuesday, but Sarah Palin’s team is already pushing back hard against former aide Frank Bailey’s “Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin,” telling POLITICO that the purported tell-all “belongs on the fiction shelves.”

In their first comments about the book since several media outlets obtained a leaked manuscript in February, two sources close to Palin disputed several of the anecdotes in the book, including his claims of illegal coordination with the Republican Governors Association and that he has seen Palin’s deposition in the so-called “Troopergate” case, which is sealed. Palin’s camp also insists that some of the Palin emails printed in the manuscript are framed to distort events — for example, the emails Bailey includes to show the former Alaska governor’s reaction to her oldest daughter’s pregnancy are about rumors that circulated before Bristol actually became pregnant.

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POLITICO 44

Palin aides also pointed to previous ethics charges against Bailey during his service to the ex-governor’s administration, as well as an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general’s office over the emails Bailey included in the book. Additionally, SarahPAC spokesman Tim Crawford highlighted Bailey’s book cover, which is a modified image. The original photo was of Palin standing next to other governors at an RGA event, not next to Bailey.

“Frank Bailey was the only member of the Palin administration to be found to have acted unethically – twice,” Crawford said. “He is currently under investigation again by the state attorney general. Then, as the administrator of certain email accounts, he acted unethically by appropriating account information he was entrusted to protect.”

“Gov. Palin suspended Bailey and refused to hire Bailey when he sought a position on her vice presidential campaign staff and later with SarahPAC. Mr. Bailey has an axe to grind and abandoned truth in his book. The cover of the book tells this story, two completely different photos twisted and Photoshopped to create a fraudulent image. The book belongs on the fiction shelves.”

Bailey based much of his book on emails between Palin and her aides from during her time as governor. Palin’s team did not provide any evidence that the emails Bailey pointed to in the leaked manuscripts are doctored or inaccurate, saying that the former governor did not hang on to roughly 60,000 emails that Bailey had access to as a member of her staff. But they contend that Bailey is a disgruntled former staffer with an axe to grind and motivated by the ability to make money.

Both Crawford and another Palin source told POLITICO that Bailey tried unsuccessfully to secure a job with SarahPAC.

Bailey co-wrote the book with two bloggers from the anti-Palin site Mudflats and struggled to get the 456-page manuscript published before it was leaked to the media. Prior to writing the book with bloggers Ken Morris and Jeanne Devon, Bailey approached now-Palin aide Rebecca Mansour about writing what book. Mansour, then a blogger for the Palin fan site conservatives4Palin, turned him down — though she says at that point, Bailey pitched it as a positive account of the former governor.

“He thinks things are going in a bad direction,” another Republican close to Ailes told me. “Roger is worried about the future of the country. He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.”

Sarah is afraid of the truth. Bailey speaks the truth and that scares her to death, hence her latest lies about Bailey. Sarah is a piece of sh_t. It's not working Sarah, the whole world knows you're the biggest liar on the planet.

Good for Palin. Bailey obviously was an oily little worm who got in trouble while he was with Palin and was ****ed that he didn't get a promotion. Now we know why.

He wanted a SarahPAC job because he wanted to be on a Presidential Campaign. Palin saw through him and figured him to be trouble. Turned out he was. You don't compromise someone else's email access just because you have their access codes.

C4P got access to the manuscript last February when Joe McGinness leaked it. Tailgunner Joe didn't want competition for his book about Palin, so he torpedoed Jeannie Devon and Bailey. Turned out ther there was no there there in the book. However, I'm glad to see that Palin's people responded for the record. This is called Rapid Response. It's something the Bush people never mastered. Palin, however, gets this in her bones.

I'm surprised he thought he could go to Rebecca to write his book. Of course RAM turned him down.

“He thinks things are going in a bad direction,” another Republican close to Ailes told me. “Roger is worried about the future of the country. He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS ONE.

HMMMM....LOOKS LIKE PALIN IS HAVING A BAD LAMESTREAM MEDIA DAY.

Liar

May 23, 2011, 1:06 pm

Fox News Executives Dispute Quote About Palin By JIM RUTENBERG

Fox News Channel executives are disputing a quotation made by an unnamed Republican in the latest issue of New York magazine saying that the network’s chairman, Roger Ailes, thinks former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is “an idiot.”

The article quotes “a Republican close to Ailes” who makes that assertion and adds: “He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.” Mr. Ailes did not speak for the magazine article.

In a statement to The New York Times, the Fox News Channel executive vice president of programming, Bill Shine, said:

“I know for a fact that Roger Ailes admires and respects Sarah Palin and thinks she is smart. He also believes many members of the left-wing media are extremely terrified and threatened by her. Despite a massive effort to destroy Sarah Palin, she is still on her feet and making a difference in the political world. As for the ‘Republican close to Ailes’ for which the incorrect Palin quote is attributed, when Roger figures out who that is, I guarantee you he or she will no longer be ‘close to Ailes.’ ”

Bad politicians should be brought down and more power to whoever can manage to do it. Palin is a train wreck in every imaginable way. The sooner this stupid woman is gone from the political vista, the better for the country. She had every chance in the world to do something meaningful and yet, on every front, she behaved in a petty, vindictive way. She's a small person in a big world. Good bye Stunningly Stupid Sarah.

Palin is such an obvious narcissist that a book documenting it is no big deal. The bitter-is-better crowd may remain interested in her, but the rest of us need someone who isn't so addicted to the spotlight that they won't govern when elected.

Their argument is he photoshopped the cover (big whoop) and he acted unethically?!? Ahem, didn't he act unethically at the direction of Toddles? Plus, her big reaction when he did get caught - put him on PAID admin leave!!

Who are these idiots who work for her? They should really read the book to see how sometime down the road, they too will be thrown under the bus.